A Malta-based shell company was used by a Spanish embezzler arrested last week after five years on the run to help siphon off millions of public funds through a publicly-owned wastewater treatment company which operated in and around the city of Valencia.

José Ignacio Roca Samper had left Spain for France in 2008, but had disappeared from that country two years later. But financial transactions helped identify his whereabouts, and just last week, he was arrested by Interpol in Chisinau, the capital of Moldova.

While in France, Mr Roca Samper had set up companies in the “tax havens of Andorra and Malta,” helping him evade justice for five years, according to Magistrate Silvia Vivó, who has formally requested his extradition.